Triqui MochiAds Arcade plugin for WordPress upgraded to 1.2

Yesterday MochiMedia changed the games feed adding a new field called metascore that screwed the feed parsing.

So I am releasing the new version, compatible with the new feed and tested with WordPress 2.9.2. You can find it at the official page.

Talking about plugins, I am developing a new theme/plugin using crontables that automatically feeds the games, fixes the tables if MochiMedia updates the feed, and chooses the best games to publish.

Everything without any interaction from the user. The ultimate “forget about it and make money with your arcade site” plugin.

Stay tuned.

Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 2

After seeing the character creation in Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 1, it’s time to add some coins to collect.

This process will involve some interesting Box2D features, like sensors and custom collision management.

I would suggest to read the basics of sensors at Erase Box: the tutorial and custom collision management at Creation of a Flash Stabilize! clone using Box2D – part 4.

Although they are both referred to an older Box2D version, they’ll introduce you to sensor and collisions.

Now the concept is simple: we are placing some circular sensors around the stage (the coins), then we’ll create a custom contact listener class to check whether the player is over a coin or not. If it’s over, we’ll remove the coin.

So this is the main script: Read more

11 Flash isometric engines you can use in your games

I am playing isometric games for more than 20 years… probably started with Q*bert, one of the oldest games I played is Head Over Heels on my Commodore 64, and I was an hardcore player of UFO: Enemy Unknown.

As you should know, isometric projection is a method of visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions, in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and the angles between any two of them are 120 degrees. A great way to represent 3D worlds on old 8-bit computers since their CPUs did not handle a real 3D world, and a great way to create casual adventure games nowadays.

I am showing you a list of 11 Flash isometric engines, some of them are free, others are commercial, and some still unreleased. I am writing to all authors to have more info about their engines, meanwhile this the most complete list I was able to make.

Engines are listed in alphabetical order.

2D isometric engine – Free

http://code.google.com/p/2d-isometric-engine/

Open source, multilevel and multiplayer tilebased isometric engine, reviewed in this post

as3isolib – Free

http://as3isolib.wordpress.com/

As3isolib is an open-source ActionScript 3.0 Isometric Library developed to assist in creating isometrically projected content (such as games and graphics) targeted for the Flash player platform. As3isolib includes utilities, primitives and views. As3isolib was developed with simplicity, speed and performance in mind so that developers can focus on actual implementations rather than having to learn a complex API.

You can see latest project using this engine at http://apps.facebook.com/downtowngame/ Read more

Monetize your Flash games with GamesChart

Do you remember Emanuele Ornella from Mind the Move? It’s the guy behind the Come2Play multiplayer API tutorial posted about a month ago.

Now he is explaining us a new way to monetize Flash games: GamesChart

« When I first saw the announcement on Flash Game Developers group on www.linkedIn.com about the GamesChart beta program I immediately thought to participate. It was a surprise to me to find that my game Haunted House was at first position for the entire 4 weeks of the beta program!

Actually also my Alice Memory game is also on the chart, even if never more than in the 6th position.

What GamesChart is about?

It’s another way to generate money from you Flash games. The nice thing is that it is not an alternative to the traditional banner you place during the loading of the game. But it goes together.
The main idea is to have publisher to “bid” for which game will be in the chart and this will generate extra revenue to the developer, to the publisher who correctly bid and of course to the GamesChart organization.

This is from Barry White directly from linkedIn group. Read more

Box2D Flash game creation tutorial – part 1

My first Flash game tutorial ever was Flash game creation tutorial – part 1.

It was the first of a series to create a game like jmtb‘s ball games. It was an old AS2 series, and some steps have been ported in AS3 with Create a Flash ball game using AS3.

The “ball” game is so simple yet addictive and customizable that I think it’s the perfect game to start a tutorial series based on a new language.

This time I am not covering a new language but the famous Box2D library, but I am going to add all necessary features to make it an interesting game to play.

In this first chapter, I am going to create the ball and the way you control it, by tapping arrow keys.

I am using the basics of Understanding Box2D applicable forces and Box2D tutorial for the absolute beginners – revamped, which I recommend you to read.

Now this is the code: Read more

Saving and storing your work

No matter if you are a Flash game developer, a web designer, a video editor, a programmer or whatever… the more your work on your computer, the more files you will generate.

After a while, your hard disk will become a nasty place full of shattered project if you don’t follow some simple rules.

That’s how I organize, save and store my work.

1) I keep on the computer’s hard disk only the projects I am currently working on

With more than 10 years of work, keeping all projects, images, video and every other kind of file on the computer I am currently using would be really a nonsense. First, there is no reason to keep old projects on your hard disk, second I don’t want someone to rob my notebook and have access to an entire life of work. So I use to keep on my computer only the projects I am currently working on. When a project is finished, I move it on another hard disk. Should I work again on an old project, I copy it on my computer and start working on it, until it’s finished, then I move it on another hard disk.

Since you will access this hard disk once in a while (sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month), there isn’t any particular recommendation about the hard disk. I am using two USB 1TB iomega where I store almost all my work.

Why “almost”? Because I have some other USB 500GB hard disks with video projects. Videos can consume a lot of hard disk space, so it’s better to dedicate an entire hard disk to each project

2) I create a folder for each branch of my projects

In the picture you can see four directories. Two are obvious, while “Beta” contains all the abandoned projects and “No internet” contains all the projects I did not develop for the web, such as executable software, brochures, business cards, and so on. As said, videos are on other hard disks.

Obviously, the folders you will have may vary according to the type of projects you are working on… so you couldn’t have “Flash games” but you could have “Magazines”… this depends on your work.

Just remember: don’t delete anything. Never. That’s why I have a directory for abandoned projects. Hard disk are so inexpensive you can afford a lot of them Read more

Understanding Box2D applicable forces

In Box2d, bodies aren’t only affected by gravity and collisions, but you can also apply forces to them.

Knowing the right force to apply is very important when you want to control a body, as you may want to do in a Flash game

Let’s see the forces you can apply:

Applying a force

public function ApplyForce(force:b2Vec2, point:b2Vec2):void

Apply a force at a world point. If the force is not applied at the center of mass, it will generate a torque and affect the angular velocity. This wakes up the body, so you don’t have to wake it up by yourself.

The force is applied inNewtons (N).

Applying an impulse

public function ApplyImpulse(impulse:b2Vec2, point:b2Vec2):void

Apply an impulse at a point. This immediately modifies the velocity. It also modifies the angular velocity if the point of application is not at the center of mass. This wakes up the body, so you don’t have to wake it up by yourself.

The impulse is applied in Newton-seconds or kg-m/s.

Setting a linear velocity

public function SetLinearVelocity(v:b2Vec2):void

Set the linear velocity of the center of mass. This function will not work if the body is sleeping, so you must wake it up with SetAwake before applying the velocity.

What force should I apply?

You should choose the force according to the result you want to achieve. Let’s suppose you want to apply a vertical force, to make something jump in the air, and let’s suppose you can apply the force at any time, even when you just applied it.

You will have three cases:

Applying the force when the body is not moving: this happens when you apply the force when the body lies on the ground or when it’s in the air, in the moment it finished its “jumping” speed and it’s about to fall down. In this case there aren’t any noticeable difference among applied forces.

Applying the force when the body is moving up: this happens when the body is in the air and still has “jumping” speed. In this case, applying a force or an impulse will sum the “jumping” speed to the applied force to produce a “boost”, while setting the velocity again will just apply the velocity again, no matter the “jumping speed”

Applying the force when the body is falling down: this happens when the body finished its “jumping” speed and it’s falling down. As in the previous case, applying a force or an impulse will sum the falling speed to the applied force, and according to falling speed and applied force, the body will continue falling or jump a little (how little? the difference between the falling force and the applied one). Setting the velocity will just stop the body to fall and make it jumping again, no matter of the falling speed. Read more

Flash AS3 Pixel based circle collision engine

After seeing the Lineball video teaser I got some email asking me how did I make the hollow circle with Box2D, and how to get a smooth drawing using box primitives.

Well, I have to say I didn’t use Box2d, but another library called Collision Detection Kit.

I’ll publish some tutorial about it once I’ll complete the game, but it’s not the point of today’s post.

A reader from Argentina, Adolfo Chacon, sent me an AS3 basic engine to do the same thing (maybe even better) using the concepts I explained soooooo long ago in the Create a flash draw game like Line Rider or others series.

It’s a basic, uncommented script because it’s just a prototype… basically Adolfo took my old script, adjusted trigonometry and did the magic dividing the simulation in steps to manage slower speeds.

I resized it, changed variable names (translating from spanish) and some operators since the auto format option gave me errors when trying to format a<-b, forcing me to change into a<b*-1.

Now enjoy the script Read more

Lineball video teaser

This is a quick video teaser of my upcoming game (probably) called Lineball.

It’s a draw game, a classic in which you must draw a line to make a ball reach the goal, but with some twists, such as the ability to control ball’s speed with arrow keys, red zones that will kill your ball if it touches the lines you drew, 42 levels some of them with moving environment, and so on.

The engine is almost complete, and at the moment I am working on level design, then I’ll retouch the graphics and polish some details, and it will be completed.

As you can see, I am keeping the menu very simple, with only two buttons, and some space for the sponsors. In the level selection screen, there is also a lot of space for sponsor logos.

The only thing I still have to decide is how to save level progression… I don’t know if I should use a Mochi account, or simply save it as a shared object, or using Mochi Coins to unlock some levels, or allowing to play some levels only on the official site…

The game will be completed in about a week, if there is anyone interested in sponsoring it, I am open to any deal since I am still working on the game… just drop me a mail at info[at]emanueleferonato[dot]com.

Promote your brand with Firefox 3.6 Personas

I bet you all downloaded Firefox 3.6.

One of the new features is Personas, which allows you to instantly change the look of your Firefox with thousands of easy-to-install themes.

There are thousands of Personas to choose from, with more added every day, because users can upload their own, in a growing library with more 35,000 submissions.

Personas work with any type of computer that has Firefox installed. This includes Mac, Linux and Windows platforms.

This means if you design a popular theme, thousands (if not millions) of Firefox users will have your Persona theme installed. Creating a Personas theme can be a fun way to promote your brand. It’s easy, free and won’t take you more than a couple of minutes.

Probably you won’t become famous with your Personas theme, but it’s something you should create, especially if you are a graphic artist. Creating various personas with your artwork can attract visitors to you site. Basically the process would be something like this:

People browse Personas to custom their Firefox, they see you awesome skins and become fan of yours.

Let’s create a custom Firefox Persona!

To create your Firefox Persona you will need:

* Firefox 3.6
* The Persona Plus plugin
* An header image, 3000×200 pixels, jpg or png and lighter than 300k
* A footer image, 3000×100 pixels, jpg or png and lighter than 300k (only the size changes) Read more

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